Because of the toxic nature of silver solutions as a pollutant in sewage treatment facilities and because of the value of recovered silver as a byproduct, significant attention has been directed at methods and devices for removal of silver from solutions such as photographic fixers. In my U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,247, issued Dec. 22, 1992, I described one such device wherein various plastic chips or packing material were utilized to support scrap metal parts in the flow path in a container between the inlet and outlet of the container. Other devices are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,857,703; 4,331,473; 3,692,291 and 3,630,505.
A need has continued to exist for improved iron ion-providing devices for recovery of silver from solution.